WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor

Ch. 8

also allows for the termination of poor
performing employees. The Baltimore City
Public School System and the Maryland
State Department of Education shall submit
a progress report on the implementation of
the recommendations to the budget
committees by November 15, 1993.

The budget committees arc concerned about the
level of student performance in Baltimore City.
The Maryland School Performance Reports
for the past three years indicate that the
Baltimore City Public Schools have only
achieved a satisfactory rating in one of the
twelve data base areas for assessed student
knowledge and student participation. This is
significantly lower than statewide performance
levels. The inability of Baltimore City Schools
to achieve satisfactory performance levels is of
particular concern to the committees because
the City receives approximately 20 percent of
the total State education aid.

The budget committees therefore support the
efforts of the Baltimore City Public School
System to implement the recommendations of
an independent management study of the
Baltimore City Public Schools. The
committees note that the Baltimore City Public
School System is the only local educational
agency in Maryland to participate in an
extensive management study and that the
problems of Baltimore City are not unlike
those faced by most urban school systems. The
Department of Fiscal Services has
recommended that the Maryland State
Department of Education take a more active
role in monitoring the effectiveness of school
reform efforts such as the one in Baltimore
City. The budget committees concur with this
recommendation, and further agree that
MSDE should monitor, evaluate and
comment upon any significant reform efforts
undertaken by Maryland school systems.

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